“What are you doing here? Honey… You’re not old enough to know how bad life gets.”
“Obviously, doctor, you have never been a 13 year old girl.”

When I first time see this scene in THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, I feel cold and so nervous. In my impression, a girl only 13 year old will be naive and do not think too much about life. But Cecilia is totally different.

Shot 1: 2 seconds.

Shot types: Close-up. The director use close-up to let us to see injection liquid clearly. Because the liquid means cold.
Sound: The sound from hospital like medical devices sounds. It sounds quiet, but also sounds noise.
Contrast dominants: The light and the injection liquid with background. Through this background, we could know the character in hospital, and something terrible was happened.
Character movement: No movement. In this shot, there is no character movement.
Camera movement: No movement. In this shot, just two seconds, the director would not let the camera move. I think this means he wants to let audiences enter a cold world. It tell us, look, terrible things are happened.
Camera angle: The angle of the camera is at an even eye level. There is no high or low angle. Because at this moment, nothing was happened.
Lighting: An interior scene light. It is a normal light.
Colors: Cold colors, grey and white. The director wants to tell audiences, pay attention, this move will let you sad. It is a tragedy move. Director also wants to tell us that Cecilia what a beautiful girl is, but she does what a pitiful thing. That is terrible.

My own idea: This scene start with this picture, very quiet, only can hear injection liquid. Then I know in hospital there is something wrong happened. Light not very bright and liquid makes people feel cold. The shot type is close-up and let people see clearly how cold it is. Color is almost black and white, it also feel cold.

Shot 2: 8 seconds.

The doctor talks to Cecilia. But Cecilia looks so cold. It looks like she does not care anything in the world. She knows all the things about life. Her talking sounds an old people.

Shot types: Medium full shot. The director use medium full shot, at the same time we can see Cecilia’s face and doctor’s back. It is clearly to show us what was happened. On Cecilia’s face, we can not see any expression. We only can feel cold. The doctor’s back, we can not see his face, so we do not know his expression. I think director just wants to let us see Cecilia’s face, and the doctor’s expression is not very important.
Sound: Doctor talks to Cecilia. It only use dialogue. There is no music, we can hear the talking clearly. It means quiet and sad.
Contrast dominants: The light with background. It is not very clear. Because Cecilia is the main character, not the light or background.
Character movement: No movement. In this shot, they just talking, there is no character movement. But why director do not let the doctor move to Cecilia’s left side or right side? Because director just wants to give audiences a quiet feeling, so there is no character movement.
Camera movement: No movement. I think the reason is the same as why there is no character movement, because director just wants to give audiences a quiet feeling.
Camera angle: The angle of the camera is at an even eye level. There is no high or low angle. Because director just wants to show us Cecilia’s face, her expression.
Lighting: An interior scene light. Director would not want to through light to show audiences something important, because it is clear enough.
Colors: Cold colors, grey, white and light blue. It tells us that is a terrible thing.

My own idea: We can only see doctor’s reverse side and the background color almost white, the icy instruments it also feel cold. The doctor said very slow and the low voice sounds so sad. In left side, we can see Cecilia’s injured wrist, that is pitiful. Her wrist looks immature.

Shot 3: 4 seconds.

Cecilia gives a answer why she was here.

Shot types: Close-up. We can see her golden-brown hair, round face, lovely lips and especially for the bright eyes. They are all show audiences she is really a 13 year old girl. So her suicide is unbelievable.
Sound: Cecilia talks to doctor. It only use dialogue. There is no music, we can hear the talking clearly. It means quiet and sad.
Character movement: No movement. It will let us to see her face carefully, to observe her expression.
Camera movement: No movement. I think the reason is the same as why there is no character movement. Because it will let us to see her face carefully, to observe her expression. I think from front is enough.
Camera angle: The angle of the camera is at an even eye level. There is no high or low angle. Because the camera is at the front of Cecilia, it is clear enough. If use another angle, maybe it can not let audiences see Cecilia’s face clearly.
Lighting: An interior scene light. It is not very clear, but it can highlight Cecilia’s face.
Colors: Cold colors, light grey, light blue and golden-brown for the hair. It looks cold but quiet. The important thing is, Cecilia was in hospital and she got something terrible. That is why use cold colors.

My own idea: This shot’s type also close-up, we can see her face very clearly. Her golden-brown hair, round face, lovely lips and especially for the bright eyes. Her face is very clean, it looks like a real 13 year old girl. But her eyes are depress, it looks old enough to know how bad life gets. I am afraid of expression in Cecilia’s eyes. I recall that when I was 13, I have never think about life, only play and play everyday. Her eyes I will never forget.